Glenn Beck helps lead the right-wing mewling about Rev. Joseph Lowery's benediction at President Obama's inauguration yesterday:
Good thing Barack Obama distanced himself from Jeremiah Wright. Is this how the post-racial Obama administration begins? I mean, I understand that he's an older gentleman, and that's fine, but, really? Someday brown can stick around, the yellow man can remain mellow? And white will embrace what's right? Can you imagine anyone else saying something like that? Even at the inauguration of a black president, it seems white America is being called racist.
Mr. President, I want to believe, I want to trust, I want to hope for change. But I am really failing to see how this is any different. USA Today reports something that I am actually shocked by -- that you smiled when he said this and shook your head. And it's not like you didn't know what you were getting yourself into. This is the same reverend that made Coretta Scott King's funeral all about politics.
Someone call the Waaaahmbulance, stat!
First, it might be helpful for Glenn Beck to know that the Rev. Joseph Lowery isn't merely an "older gentleman": he is in fact one of the sole surviving lions of the Civil Rights movement, a close and longtime ally of Martin Luther King (as well as Rosa Parks), and the founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, one of the major organizations in the battle over desegregation.
In other words, he's man who's been to the mountaintop that Glenn Beck thinks is just a handy piece of scenery upon which to chew.
Indeed, it is the persistent fantasy of the very same white conservatives who trafficked in suggestions that Barack Obama was secretly Muslim -- and that Muslims themselves are innately suspected of terrorism -- that somehow racism has been magically overcome by Obama's election (which they only coincidentally opposed, you know).
Being a true right-wing populist nutcase, Beck never quits while he's behind, and goes on to dig an even deeper hole:
And yet the only we ever heard about was the guy on the right that was going to open things up, that didn't say anything about yella being mella.
America is with you today, Mr. President. And you're right, we are all tired of the partisan bickering, the racial divides, the greed and the corruption. There are many people in this country who didn't vote for you, myself included, that actually want you to succeed. My family has been down on our knees for the last month praying for you and your family and your safety. You may be fascinated to learn that many of us don't hate minorities. That we don't want to starve the poor. And we're perfectly fine with brown sticking around.
Ah, it's good to see Beck acknowledging that maybe it's OK if "brown sticks around." Because we'd have had a hard time figuring that out from his previous Latino-bashing pronouncements on CNN.
"Every undocumented worker is an illegal immigrant, a criminal and a drain on our dwindling resources." -- Glenn Beck, September 4, 2007
"I've got a quick message for illegal aliens if you happen to be watching. You better start packing your bags. And to the politicians in Washington who are soft on illegal immigration, start packing up your office, because when the terrorists strike, which they will, and we find out that they're here illegally from some other country, we will be telling all of you to get the hell out." -- Glenn Beck, May 9, 2007
"America's border crisis. Rape, drugs, kidnapping, even murder. It is beginning to look a lot more like a border war." -- Glenn Beck, November 8, 2007
"It's time we wake up in this country. We are dealing with an illegal alien crime wave, and drug smuggling is just the beginning." -- Glenn Beck, January 12, 2007
And this one is similarly indicative of a tolerance of brown people (or lack thereof):
Somebody comes across the border in the middle of the night, why are they doing that? Really, three reasons: One, they're terrorists; two, they're escaping the law; or three, they're hungry. They can't make a living in their own dirtbag country.
Of course, Glenn Beck isn't the only right-wing phony twisting his pearls over Rev. Lowery's benediction. Seems Michelle Malkin is in need of a fainting couch too. (Give me an L!) Along with a whole host of their fellow wingnuts.
All because, evidently, Obama's election was supposed to mean that we're now officially over racism so we don't need to talk about it anymore.
And the ironic thing is, they accuse liberals of turning Obama into a "magic negro."
